


Who Says Life Is Fair

by Jaelijn



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Fun fair, Gen, Introspection, Post Episode: s02e04 Horizon, Season/Series 02, past Kerr Avon/Anna Grant - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 19:57:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20315152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaelijn/pseuds/Jaelijn
Summary: TheLiberatorcrew take a day off on the fairgrounds of Agatida Tertia.Avon goes his own way.





	Who Says Life Is Fair

**Author's Note:**

> It's that time again - the new issue of _Rebels and Fools_ is out, and I can start posting my zine fics here, too! Check out [the entire issue #3 here](https://rebelsandfools.tumblr.com/post/186885179223/rebels-and-fools-issue-3)!
> 
> Enjoy (and consider contributing to the zine)!

“All right. The fair is neutral ground, but remember not to draw any attention to yourselves. We need a bit of rest and relaxation, not a riot.”

“Another one, you mean?” Avon sneered just as Vila said: “Oh, I don’t know, a bit of riotous fun might be just the thing, don’t you think, Cally?”

Blake, with skill gained by long practice, ignored them both. “We’ll meet back on the ship at the end of the day – that will be near midnight on the planet. If you need teleporting early, call Orac. _Try_ not to get into trouble.”

Avon wasn't so easily brought off his point. “That, I hope, includes you, too, Blake. The fair is _neutral_ ground. Don’t expect us to come to your aid if you decide to object to something. I might, for example, remind you that slavery is still legal in parts of the galaxy.”

Blake grimaced. “I’m well aware, Avon. I don’t want any of us to head off alone. Stay in groups or pairs.”

Avon snapped his teleport bracelet shut sharply.

“That does include you, Avon.”

Avon just glared at him. “Are you done?”

Blake nodded, finally allowing a smile in anticipation. “Yes. Orac, put us down.”

They materialised to the side of the fairgrounds, where, this early in the day, it was quiet. Their appearance remained unobserved, large, bulky trees hiding them from the fair. The trees were also blocking their view onto the grounds, but did nothing to hide the hubbub, the laughter, the music and the general _noise_ from the attractions. The mass of attendees, already loud, would only grow as the day wore on, and especially once night fell. The fairgrounds of Agatida Tertia were famous for the spectacle of lights they displayed each night while the fair was open.

“I will join you,” Cally declared as she stepped to Jenna’s side, who was standing with Blake. “Have you ever been to the fair?”

Jenna nodded. “Once. It was a long time ago.”

“Then you can be our guide.” Blake offered his arm to Jenna, who took it happily, and turned back to catch Avon’s eye. “No going off on your own.”

Avon bared his teeth. “Of course not.”

“You could join us,” Cally offered, lingering behind as Blake and Jenna strolled ahead.

“No, thank you. Someone ought to keep an eye on _them_ anyway.”

“I resent that!” Vila protested automatically.

Avon just arched an eyebrow in his general direction. “Don’t tell me you weren’t planning on getting drunk.”

“Well...”

“We’ll be all right, Cally,” Gan interrupted, and Cally nodded, hurrying after Jenna and Blake.

As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Vila clapped Gan on the back. “Right, let’s go. I'll show you how to have fun.”

Gan looked at Avon, hesitant and evidently curiously perceptive, for he commented: “Blake said not to head off on your own.”

Avon turned away from the stare. “I don’t plan to get into trouble.”

“All the same...”

“Oh, come on.” Vila tugged at Gan’s arm, and though he would have no chance to move Gan on strength alone, the bigger man let himself be drawn slowly onwards. “You don’t want to find out Avon’s idea of fun, do you?”

Avon fell into step by their side with a wry smile, for now – only long enough to trail them to the entrance of the fair. He had heard about Agatida Tertia, of course. It was one of those tales from spacefarers that enthralled the dome dwellers of Earth and travelled faster than even the doses of suppressant could contain. It sounded... spectacular, but Avon had never been one for spectacles. Feats of the mind, yes, but crowds and noise and stalls where the only thing you could win were pointless toys and trinkets held little appeal. He could hardly expect a high-end casino here.

Avon had considered staying on board, but hadn’t thought it wise to suggest that to the others. Horizon was too fresh on Blake’s mind, no doubt part of the reason he had insisted that no one wander off on their own – so Avon would not teleport back up and take the _Liberator_ and run. It didn’t seem to matter that Avon, even when he had every reason to believe the others dead, had come to their rescue instead of just leaving; Blake seemed convinced he was just waiting for the next opportunity. And yet, he had let him stay with Vila and Gan. Even if Avon had planned to stick with them, which he had no intention of doing, the two – a cowardly thief and a man with a limiter implant – were hardly an obstacle if Avon decided to take over the ship.

If he had to be suspicious, Avon wished Blake would at least be thorough about it.

At any rate, Avon wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself on the fair. The rides certainly didn’t attract him – perhaps they were interesting as an experiment in stupidity and engineering, but he certainly wouldn’t set foot in one. He had been shaken about enough on the _Liberator_ lately.

But, despite it all, he had wanted to see Agatida Tertia, given the chance.

He didn’t have a bucket list of places scattered across the galaxy that he wanted to visit, like Vila, but he had some that, if he got the chance, he wanted to at least see. There was a place that might once have been on the top of this not-list. That, Avon wasn’t certain he would visit now, even if the opportunity presented itself. That one had been Anna’s, and Anna was gone, and Avon didn’t know whether he wanted to stand there without her. Agatida Tertia was comfortably further down the not-list. 

Vila and Gan disappeared into the throng while Avon hung back near the entrance, lost in his musings, and he had soon lost sight of them. He knew that the fair was arranged in a loose spiral and headed towards the right, intend to at least walk through it all before the nightfall would bring even larger crowds. As long as he didn’t run into Blake, Jenna and Cally, he would be fine – and travelling as a group of three, they would be far easier to spot than his own solitary figure.

Being neutral ground, the fair attracted an eclectic mixture of exhibitors and stall owners. Some, Avon knew to be alien; others had the distinct manner or clothing of Earth colonies he recognised. There were a few that he knew were affiliated with the Federation or the Terra Nostra, and he gave those a wide berth, hoping that the others had the sense to do the same. There were, as he had predicted, some stalls that were sure to upset Blake – freak shows, dancers that bore slave collars. Avon didn’t linger, finding them quite distasteful, altogether. He did end up exchanging a few coins from the holds – pocket money for the trip, graciously handed out by Blake – for fair tokens. Originally, Avon only intended to use them to try some food, though he then also paid for a round at a shooting gallery just to annoy the owner. A burly person of indefinable gender, the owner had spotted him and had quite blatantly assumed that Avon was a rich tourist, incapable of handling a gun. Avon had enjoyed proofing him wrong, though he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the price – double his stake in fair tokens and a smallish rainbow-coloured soft toy with the fair’s emblem stitched into its misshapen ear. Well. It was a reminder that he had been here, at any rate.

He ran across Vila and Gan again in the afternoon at a street food bar that offered seating benches out front. Avon joined them for a while, watching Vila drink and pretend to be more drunk than he was, and Gan get increasingly buzzed in the strange quiet way he had. Avon stayed long enough to eat the dessert Vila insisted he try and pass the fair tokens he had won onto the two men – they would need them more than Avon, if Vila’s bravado turned out to be more than hot air and he did, in fact, intend on trying one of the rides.

After that, Avon’s wandering around the fair took on an aimless quality. Several stall owners tried to attract his attention; Avon ignored them. He had to be a little more insistent with a magician who bodily tried to draw Avon into his tent. The man backed away when he found the laser probe Avon had kept in his pocket jabbed into his ribs. They had deemed the _Liberator_ guns to be too distinctive to take down with them, but Jenna and Cally had each tucked a knife into their boots, Vila and Avon both always carried probes that were effective enough as a weapon in a pinch and Gan fared better with his fists anyway. Avon didn’t know if Blake carried a weapon, but he wasn’t overly concerned – Blake's right hook was impressive enough, if nothing else.

Avon lingered for a moment at a tent that promised to contain a true AI android – then decided that it was likely a scam. As far as AI technology went, the two most sophisticated AIs in the galaxy were probably on board the _Liberator_ this very moment. In the end, he spent the final fair tokens on a dinner of noodles that came in a paper box, which he ate seated on a sloping hill that overlooked the fair. He didn’t much enjoy sitting on the ground, but it was a little quieter up here, if he disregarded the revellers who had had the same idea, and he could observe the particular ride that even from this distance looked suicidal without having to hear the screams of delighted terror from its riders quite so loudly.

It was nearly nightfall when Vila, Gan, and, Avon noticed with dismay, Cally, found him there.

“Avon! Blake was worried!” she said, by the way of a greeting.

“I’m sure he was,” Avon said, glancing over at where Vila, having dropped his drunken act, lowered a laughing – and properly drunk – Gan into the grass. “I’m fine.”

Cally sat beside him. “I can see that, now. You shouldn’t complain about Blake’s lack of caution if you chose to ignore his very sensible instructions.”

“If you expected me to spend any more time with those two than I have to, you were mistaken.” Avon folded the empty noodle box in on itself, reducing it to a small square. “I might return to the ship.”

“Aww, Avon, aren’t you enjoying it?” Vila chimed in from the side, having released Gan to lie giggling against the hillside.

“Did _you_ get on that ride?” Avon asked him archly.

Vila settled happily in front of him and Cally, his back to the fair. “No. Turns out, Gan can’t hold his liqueur.” Vila reached out brazenly to pluck the soft toy from where Avon had set it down. “What were you doing, angling ducks?”

“I already had that when I ran into you at the bar – and no. The owner of a shooting gallery was under the impression I wouldn’t be able to handle a gun.”

“So you proved him wrong,” Vila said, tossing the toy back to him. “I hope you shot the target and not the owner.”

Avon didn’t dignify that with a response. The fair had started to turn on its illuminations, now that night was falling. It made a spectacle of colour and light wherever a ride whirled its passengers through the air in dizzying circles.

Avon watched it for a while in silence, then asked: “What happened to Blake and Jenna?”

“Jenna wanted to try a ghost ride,” Cally said softly, “I was... uneasy.”

“Sensible, if you ask me,” Vila chimed.

“You would think so,” Avon told him, and added, to Cally, “the people here can hardly afford actual actors. The ride would be mechanical – nothing but automatons, machines, robots. Most of the time even just puffs of air will do.”

She inclined her head. “Perhaps. On Auron, the telepathic force of the dead will sometimes linger. It is disrespectful to disturb them.”

Avon caught Vila’s horrified expression and shrugged. “I doubt anyone from Auron would come here.”

“Probably not,” Cally conceded. “All the same, I don’t scoff at the notion of ghosts as the people of Earth seem to do.”

“Well, what now? Gan isn’t going anywhere.” Avon looked over at Gan, who seemed mesmerised by the spinning lights, a strangely sad expression on his face that struck a familiar cord. Avon tore his gaze away.

“I will stay with him,” Cally said, “if you go with Vila.”

“Who says I want him?” Vila protested, but it sounded automatic.

Avon didn’t say that he had, for a moment, thought the same thing. It might not be such a bad idea, going back into the fair with just Vila. He had passed by an attraction or two that he would never have suggested to any of the others and that prudence had kept him from entering on his own. Perhaps Vila would be convinced. “It’s either that or staying here for the rest of the night,” he told Vila.

Vila scrambled hurriedly to his feet and held out his hand. “All right, then. Let’s go.”

Avon ignored the helping hand and stood, nudging the toy with his foot. “Will you–”

“I’ll watch over Gan and your winnings,” Cally said immediately, and added in his head, in a tone between stern and amused: _Have fun!_

Avon nodded and headed down the hillside with Vila, who had already started up a string of senseless babbling. 


End file.
